Is sustainable development a myth?

It is very pleasing to the ears to hear words like ‘organic’, ‘eco-friendly’, ‘green’, ‘non-toxic’, and of course ‘Sustainable’ ……. Isn’t that a beautiful façade they’ve put up?

All food packages are sustainable! We see products have been printed Sustainable in font size 12 and the ingredients in font size 6. YES! It is a MYTH! Because 100s of brands are called out for greenwashing every year. It is when a company makes fake claims to be sustainable. The word sustainable has completely lost its meaning and relevance!

Now coming to DEVELOPMENT, specifically, economic… Some companies utilized phrases like sustainable to attract clients when they were afraid of losing them and displayed illusions like planting trees. As the UN definition for sustainable development states, ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs …. Is it enough? NO! it's useless. Because it does not define needs! I could call owning a Mercedes as my need. Then who would be responsible for my carbon footprint?

Sustainable development is a hot mess. Zero pollution is a figment. We just know this is the right thing to do. But in practice, all we do is flaunt. And if it was taking place, we never had to witness a 14-year-old Greta Thunberg going out into the public to confront the authorities.

We adopted the SDGs in 2015, what are the outcomes after 7 years? Look at the SDGs progress report published by the UN. Even if only 1% of it had been met up till now, Maldives wouldn't have required an underwater parliament to highlight how pressing this issue is.

However, SDGs are important. but when something has to be sustained that is ecology, and something has to be developed i.e., values

Thank you!

- aditi

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